Plastic Surgery Capital of the World?

I’ve previously written about eyebrow-raising items that Korea is number 1 in the world at, such as…

• number of suicides per capita (among developed countries)

• lowest birth rate (fertility rate)

• smart waste management

Add number of plastic surgeries per capita to that list. Business Insider and CNN both have called South Korea as “the plastic surgery capital of the world.” Frankly, I’m not sure if I should criticize it or defend it. It is what it is.

Near the Seoul Metro Orange Line’s Apgujeong (압구정) and Shinsa (신사) Station (1 station apart), there are streets lined with plastic surgery medical offices. There’s even a 15-story building that has nothing but. It is a bit of a culture shock (even as a Korean) when you’re walking down the street and you see those rows and rows of the “성형외과 plastic surgery” signages. Not to mention some people with bandages and gauzes covering half of their faces strutting about also. It is a sight to see—o, the bravery!

1. Apgujeong station. 2. Shinsa Station, and near the famed garosu-gil. both very affluent neighborhoods

“성형외과” is the word. you’ll see tons of these as you walk down the streets of the areas marked 1 and 2 on the map above.

I was on the bus one day in Seoul, getting back to my place near Gangnam Station (which has its own share of the said medical offices), and the pre-recorded bus stop announcement came out. And there was this familiar voice. It was the unmistakable voice of Kwang-hee (광희), a former boy idol group member now an all-around TV celeb, who announced over the bus speakers, “This is so-and-so bus stop, and this is where you get off for the plastic surgery doctor that I went to!” I remember having a good quiet chuckle when I heard it.

Kwang-hee, before and after

Plastic surgery in Korea, however, is a bit different from what you would think here in the United States. A great majority of the procedures done are of the skin refinement and hair implant types. I suppose those are true in other countries too, as the following chart shows…

… but the top 3 procedures in Korea are rhinoplasty (nose job), liposuction (fat removal), and something called blepharoplasty. Breast augmentations are down the list for Koreans.

This blepharoplasty is what Koreans call the “쌍꺼풀 수술” or “double eyelids” procedure. For non-East Asian (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) folks, the word itself is probably new to you because all (or, most of) white, black, and Hispanic people are born with what we call “double eyelids.” (It’s not double eyelids, of course, that would be weird. It just looks that way.)

That line, or fold, right above your eyes is what Koreans call “쌍꺼풀.” If you’re a non-East Asian person, you probably didn’t even notice that you had it, but oh boy, so many Korean women and men covet it. It makes your eyes appear bigger, especially with makeup on, and makes you look prettier. Supposedly.

She is Kim Go-eun (김고은), a popular actress. Do you notice that she does not have that line, or fold above her eyes? In fact, only about 30% of East Asians are born with it. It’s because of this “lack” of that line that gives the oft-ridiculed “Asian slanted eye” look.

We’ve all seen people do this, and honestly, I don’t know why Asians still get all worked-up because of it. I don’t want some forced half-ass apologies that they don’t mean—I want them to grow some brain cells, for their own sake.

Anyway, because so many of the Korean women have had this procedure done, it’s probably more than 50% of the population that has this “double eyelids.” My surgeon friend in Seoul I have talked about before did tell me once that Korean doctors’ dexterous skills are probably one of the best, if not the best, in the world, and that I should do it in Seoul if I ever wanted to do something to my face. Thanks, but no thanks.

Even the government is promoting it.

The above two screenshots are straight out of the Korean government’s tourism board website. What has this world come to?

You know what else that’s kinda funny? These double eyelid procedures are one of the most sought-after graduation gifts for the high school girls. And a lot of their parents are obliging.

There was a running joke between my wife and I when our daughters were born. My wife has 쌍꺼풀 and so do I. So all 3 of our daughters have it—the joke was, “yay, we saved about $6,000 between the 3 of them at least!”